Football Thread No. 9

Takhisis said:
You do know that without guardiola most people wouldn't even know where the city of Barcelona is, right?

Who's the new impersonator for Vilanova at Crackòvia?
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People did already know where was Barcelona before him. During the 90's and the 00's Barcelona has been a top touristic destination, so I really doubt that Guardiola had anything to do with it. I'd rather say that it was the Olympic Games what put Barcelona on the map, not him.

As you know, Crackòvia airs on monday, so you'll have to wait until monday.

PS: There's been a change in the direction of TV3 and Polònia and Crackòvia will most likely be cancelled this June because of political reasons. Enjoy these last two months.
 
The thing is that the English need to wake up and smell the roses - they are the only ones who think the Europa League is a farce. On the continent it is highly respected, almost as highly as winning the Premier League/Bundesliga/Serie A/ Champions League/La Liga, and higher than any other competition out there. If the English would stop being so arrogant and assuming that their precious FA Cup/Carling Cup is more important/ playing weakened teams in the Europa League, maybe some of the not-quite-first-rate players who seem to end up representing our country so often would get experience against European styles of play and would not look like idiots when playing against them on the national stage. The likes of Harry Redknapp complaining about "having to go to Azerbaijan every Thursday night" do not help, especially when they play their reserves and embarass us all by crashing out at the group stage. Liverpool, and one of Newcastle, Spurs, Arsenal and Chelsea will be in it next season - and I think that any of them is capable of winning it if they set their minds to it and show it some respect. Who knows, maybe experiencing more technical styles will even remind Andy Carroll how to kick a football right.
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From The Guardian's user comments.
 
Takhisis said:
From The Guardian's user comments.
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Italian clubs don't seem to care about the EL either. Maybe it's not attractive enough in financial terms, esp. for English clubs who generally have the most money available. German clubs by contrast seem to be serious about this competition. I have very rarely seen a German side fielding a side full of reserves or not trying to win.
 
And yet Maradona is a hero for helping Napoli win their first international title. Of course, Milan, Inter, la Juve and perhaps Fiore won't give a damn but the rest'd give it a try.
 
I guess the Spanish teams take it more seriously than most purely because it's the ceiling for teams outside the evil Real Barca duopoly. European success for teams like Valencia and Atletico are the main thing that proves Spain isn't just a sunny version of Scotland.

Takhisis said:
In yet another utterly disgusting move, UEFA FIFA is pressing for all continental and national federations to change formats and follow the UEFA calendar, to synchronise transfer windows and so on, generally turning all football league into export markets for European clubs to come and take their pick.

Besides that, how can you expect all leagues to be played throughout the summer? You get 35ºC or more across the entire hemisphere, it's inhuman.
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That's insane. How can a league like the Australian A-League with its shorter season and need to avoid the more popular winter football codes be expected to synchronise with a 38 week UEFA calendar that starts around August and ends in May? I suppose technically a 25 week season plus finals running from October to March sort of fits within that time frame...
 
I think the problem with the europa league is the night it is played on which particularly after a long trip in Europe is not really the best preperation for a weekend game.
 
Wow Wigan are beating Newcastle 4-0. Wigan and Everton seem to regularly improve their results in the second half of the season.
 
Why in the world would Chelsea buy Marko Marin? :lol:
 
Just like to point out that the UEFA Cup used to be a competition even the top clubs respected and wanted to win. Before the Champions League started diverting more revenue away from the smaller clubs and more top clubs away from the other two competitions, the UEFA Cup (and CWC) often had stronger teams than the European cup and could be harder to win. Now of course 4 from Spain, England and Italy, 3 from Germany, France and Russia go to the Champions League, but back in the day these teams competed in the other competitions and more often than not the UEFA Cup/CWC contained the champions of the top leagues in the season ahead. You also had more top/world class players playing for even smaller teams in more junior leagues, like Holland, Portugal, Yugoslavia and Scotland (not to mention the possibilities of teams from Romania, Sweden, Czechoslovakia and the like being able to produce champions with some of Europe's finest players not all that likely to leave for bigger leagues).
 
I'd agree that the UEFA Cup used to be at a high standard, comparable to the Champions Cup, but probably not the CWC. Anyway, now that the top 4 of the major football nations go into the CL, the Europa League is generally an afterthought for teams of those leagues. If the rewards were better then perhaps it would be different, but at the moment it is clearly far more important for (say) Spurs to try to make the CL next year than it is to do well in the Europa League this year. It's not a patronising, condescending or short-termist attitude from the club, but just a matter of setting priorities appropriate for the club as a medium & long-term business.
 
Maybe it is that the Champions League has been overblown and overinflated and it's no longer a tournament of champions but a tournament of powerful teams from powerful leagues.



Wolverhampton wtf?
 
Europa league is a joke IMO. English teams don't care about it because they place a higher priority on the league then minor European success. Now I do remember the UEFA Cup and that was far more respected and English teams genuinely tried to win it, we need to return to those days - and if that means reducing the amount of teams who play in the CL thats fine, after all teh 4th placed team isn't a "champion" anyway:p

YESSSS PROMOTION TO THE EPL GET IN THERE!!!! GOGOGO SAINTSSSS!!!
 
Congrats Quackers!

Apparently you've drunk enough to post something in partial agreement with me. Don't drive tonight.
 
The Europa League is a bit like the Olympic Football Tournament. Everyone who's not in it thinks it's rubbish. For the teams and fans playing in it, it is interesting to play other sides than the national ones. Of course, the English are the exception to the rule and their fixation on themselves may very well be a reason for their poor national performance.

However, the reform thoughts for the Champions League goes the other way. Make it a 64 team tournament and lose the Europa League completely. I really hope they don't. But what else can you do? The problem with the CL is a) that it's always the same teams and b) that the group stage is long drawn out with not much to lose which makes the last round a joke. The problem with the Europa league is that a) there isn't enough money, b) the group stage again and c) that CL 3rd placed teams can enter... I don't think the Thursday date is a problem, after all you then play on Sunday at the home league, which is no difference from Wednesday-Saturday or Tuesday-Friday...
 
As a long suffering (though not recently) Fulham supporter , I can definitely confirm that the Europa League run of 2 years ago was one of the greatest (extended) sporting moments of my life . I was gutted when they got knocked out this year .

Football (see , I didn't call it soccer) would be foolish to ignore the fans of the smaller sides.

@Tak.....you should brush up on some facts . Statistics clearly indicate that walking home drunk is far more dangerous than driving. Strange but true
 
One other thing that doesn't help the Uefa cup is that the third placed champions league teams drop into the competition halfway through and often then become favourites to win the competition even if they generally fail.
 
I'm pretty sure that one is covered in Freakonomics. Perhaps Super-Freakonomics. But, yeah, you're safer driving home drunk in the US than walking home drunk.

Frankly, from my time walking around in the US, you're probably safer driving home drunk than walking home sober, as no-one is expecting a pedestrian late in the evening.

PS Your chance of killing or maiming others is much higher if you're driving and drunk than if you're walking and drunk, and that's why we have laws against drunk driving.
 
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